New Class: Bug Collector

Based on the wizard.  Just subtract the spells and add all this stuff.

Level 1
Bug Collecting 1
Bug Badges
Save +4 vs Bugs

Level 2
Bug Collecting 2
Bug Buddy

Level 3
Bug Collecting 4
Speak with Insects OR Killing Jar

Level 4+
If you want to expand this class beyond level 3, I wouldn't just increasing the number of bug collected each day (although you could certainly do that).  Instead, I'd give them an expanded table of bugs in each ecosystem with d12 different bugs each.  Bugs number 11-12 have more powerful effects.  Then at level 6, increase it to a d14 table, with two more powerful bugs.  Et cetera.

Bugs are insects, spiders, snails, slugs, and limbless worms of all types.

A Save vs Bugs is a save against any effect that originated from a bug, or any effect that is bug-themed.

Each bug collector begins play with a Butterfly Staff (functions as both a quarterstaff and a butterfly net), a bug journal, and a comfy pair of shorts.

Bug Collecting
This is how many bugs you can collect--if you have a positive Intelligence modifier, add it.  Right before dawn, you can spend an hour gathering this many bugs.  At any other time, you can spend 8 hours gathering this many bugs.  You cannot collect more than 2x this number of bugs in a given day.

Each ecosystem has a different selection of bugs.  Bugs are collected randomly.  Each time you get a new bug, enter it in your bug journal.  (DMs: Make up a fun fact about each bug.)  Once you've collected all 10 bugs in each ecosystem at least once, you get a bug badge.

After being collected, each bug only stays alive (and therefore useful) for the rest of the day.  (They're functionally equivalent to spells, in case you were wondering, so this is equivalent to getting a random selection of spells each day.)

Each bug can be used for its effect once, and then the bug either escapes, dies, or is eaten.  This really depends on whatever sort of fiction the DM wants to enforce.  (But I recommend that nursery spiders should be eaten to gain the effects of spider climb.)

Bug Badges

These are random items that you find near bugs.  It might be a half-eaten leaf or a chrysalis.  To others, it's just a piece of trash.  To you, it is a magic talisman that bestows magical powers.  And, you're right!  But only while you wear it.  However, you can only carry so many bug badges at a time.  If you carry too many, you lose the effects of one of your older ones.

You also get mad respect from other bug collectors.  The number of bug badges is directly proportionate to the chance that you will have more bug badges than other bug collectors.  If you have more bug badges than other bug collectors, you outrank them, and can boss the around.

Bug Buddy

You gain a bug buddy of a type chosen by you (butterfly, beetle, non-poisonous centipede, spider, ant, worm, moth, or fly).  This must be a mundane bug without any special powers, no bigger than what you could fit in your (closed) mouth.  The bug has Int 3 and obeys you unhesitatingly.  It can understand commands of up to two words, optionally pointing to something as well.  If your bug buddy dies, you get half the normal XP from this session, and you gain a new bug buddy the next time you go bug collecting.

Speak With Insects
This effect is permanent.  Bugs mostly know things related to food and predators.  Poisonous insects are sarcastic.  Shelled insects are gruff.  Worms and caterpillars are naive.  Grasshoppers and crickets are jokesters, and are intelligent to provide pleasant conversation partners.  Ants are boring.  You can also talk to purple worms, who have personalities like furious trucks.

Killing Jar
You can store a bug in a killing jar indefinitely, but only one bug.  This lets you "lock" one of your collected bugs (spells), so that it lasts beyond the 1-day expiration date.

I eventually intend to do many different ecosystems.  Here are 3.

Ecosystem: Cave

Cave Badge: Treat your falls as if they were 10' shorter.

1. Albino Cricket: Gain darkvision for 10 minutes.
2. Crocodile Maggot: Summon a giant centipede (HD 1) not under your control.
3. Coward Moth: Flies towards the exit.
4. Fire Beetle Larva: At some point in the next two hours, you can breath fire.  1d6, 15' cone, save for half.
5. Glow Worm: Glows as bright as a torch for 2 hours.
6. Mnemobeetle: Learn a full description of a random room in this dungeon, as described by a beetle that has explored it to the full extent that a beetle could.
7. Nursery Spider: If eaten, grants spider climb for 10 minutes.
8. Pinnate Scolipede: This HD 0 bug (HP 1, AC 10, MV half human, bite is save or die) is highly aggressive.
9. Rot Grub: as the classic monster.  Becomes "armed" once it leaves your hand.
10. Vociferous Cricket: Gain noisy echolocation (60 ft) for 2 hours.

Ecosystem: Forest

Forest Badge: Take half damage from poison.  No effect on poisons that don't deal HP or ability score damage.

1. Acid Wasp: As acid arrow.  Can also be squeezed out, equivalent to a vial of acid.
2. Bore Driller: Can be thrown as a ranged attack (20' max).  On a hit, deals 2d8 piercing damage.
3. Bird Eater: All birds in 50' must save or flee in fear.  Non-birds merely get goosebumps.
4. Hercules Beetle: Picks up an object not heavier than 2000 lbs and follows you around loyally for 2 hours.
5. Pugilistic Parasite: When eaten, will eat all the other parasites that you are currently suffering from.  After 1d6 hours of tummyaches, the parasite explodes from your anus and runs away, leaving you with 1 HP.
6. Rope Spider: Functions as a grappling hook that shits out a silk thread as soon as it is thrown.  The chance of the rope breaking increases to 1-in-6 after 1 day, an increases over the next 5 days.
7. Saw Bug: Over the course of 3 rounds, fells a tree in a direction of your choice, or deals 3d6 damage to a plant.
8. Scorpion Spider: Can be used to block a doorway with web.  If thrown at a flying creature, will attempt to bind its wings, knocking it out of the air if it fails a Strength check.
9. Unicorn Fly: Heals 1d6 HP and grants a new save against an ongoing disease.
10. Whistling Grub: Incredibly annoying sound.  Supernaturally delicious if eaten.  Can be used to summon a random encounter.  Only applies to random encounters that are interested in eating an incredibly delicious grub-thing.

Ecosystem: Plains

Plains Badge: Save +1 when wearing shorts.  You cannot wear shorts with armor heavier than leather.

1. Blattoderm: Gives you natural armor equal to plate, with none of the weight.  Lasts 2 hours.
2. Chaos Cicada: All creatures within 50' that hear this cicada are confused for 1d6 rounds.  Save negates.
3. Dragon Ant: Can be thrown as a ranged attack (20' max).  On a hit, target is incapacitated by pain for 1d6 rounds on a failed save, or 1 round on a successful save.  Lingering pain lasts for days.
4. Elf Beetle: As faerie fire, when thrown (20' max).
5. Jeweled Beetle: Worth 10g.  Usually worn as a broach.
6. Grimbly Fly:  If eaten, grants fly for 1 minute.
7. Longfly:  Can be used to poison a drink.  Poison stays active for 1 hour.  Colorless, but tastes salty.  If ingested, negates the next spell the drinker attempts to cast.  No save.
8. Brain Beetle: As ESP for 10 minutes.  Additionally, save or fall unconscious for 1d10 minutes.
9. Purple Worm Larva: 1-in-6 chance of summoning a purple worm (HD 10) not under your control.
10. Zattis Dragonfly.  Kicks up dust in a 100' radius.

this is you

Omens and Lake Drakes

Omens

When you roll a 1 on a wandering monster roll (d6), you encounter the monster itself.  If you instead roll a 2, you encounter that monster's omen--foreshadowing of something yet to come.

For mundane monsters, this is usually a mundane experience.  You might catch a glimpse of it flying near the horizon, come across half-eaten prey, hear its roar, or smell its spoor.

For more mythical monsters, omens can be just about anything.  Just like true foreshadowing.

There are three ways to experience a mythical monster's omen.

1. Rolling a 2 on a wandering monster roll.  (Already mentioned.)
2. Approaching the monster within it's lair.  By the time you reach the monster itself, most/all of the listed omens should have occurred.
3. If a mythical monster is discussed or investigated, there is a 1-in-6 chance of an omen (if appropriate). Examples:
1. While reading a book about the Lord of the Flies, a researcher is suddenly set upon by a swarm of stinging gnats.
2. A group of villagers is telling the PCs about the red dragon that burned down their village.  After the discussion, one of the villagers is suddenly struck by a powerful feeling of greed.  He robs his companions, and flees.

Omens never repeat themselves.  They are ripples in the cosmic fabric, not intentional powers of the monster.

art by DevBurmak

Lake Drake

Drakes hate being called lesser dragons.  They are about the size of a horse, and lack a breath attack.  They are as intelligent as humans, but have no way of communicating despite a basic understanding of Common.  They are known for their speed, and many of them are much faster and more maneuverable than dragons.  They are considered untamable, being both proud and vicious.

In my mind, drakes are a good lower boundary for monsters that can by considered "mythical".  They also have mild omens--ones that are more atmosphere, less mechanical effects.

Lake Drake Omens

1. Terrified fish plow through the water, jumping as if to escape something.  A number of the fish land in the boat / on land.
2. The wind stops.  The surface of the water is dazzling.  A hireling momentarily zones out and falls in.
3. Far away, a silvery shape leaps from the water.  It flies a short distance, droplets spraying from its wings, before diving back in.

Lake Drake

HD 8  Defense chain Attacks 1d6/1d6/1d8
Move 12 Fly 24 Swim 12  Int 9  Morale 8
* If a lake drake hits an opponent with at least two attacks, the drake may grab or tackle them.  A successful Str check  (at a -4 penalty) avoids this.

Lake drakes are a good example of monsters that don't need a lot of weird mechanics to be interesting.  They have so many cool tactics that a lot of the excitement in an encounter can (and should) come from the "mundane" things that drake does.  Examples:

• Ambushing by leaping from the water and then immediately taking flight.
• Escaping by diving into the water from the air, then swimming away.
• Fly-by attacks / Swim-by attacks.
• Attacking the boat and/or knocking people into the water (with its tackle).
• Grabbing people and flying away with them.  Possibly dropping them.
• Grabbing people and diving underwater.  Possibly drowning them.

If you want to give lake drakes a mechanical ability because you feel itchy when a monster doesn't have a unique mechanical differentiation, just say that it gets +2 AC and attack whenever it bursts out of the water splashing sunshine and droplets everywhere.

And unlike, say, a golem, people already have a good grasp on the ecology (and motivations) of lake drakes.  They eat fish.  They're jealous of dragons.  Just those two facts allow people to manipulate the behavior (and therefor engineer the combat).  They might be distracted by fish, or accept them as a bargaining chip.  They might get angry if you tell them how inferior they are to true dragons.

Just-in-Time Durations

So the player fails their save vs paralysis.  Now, they're paralyzed for 1d6 rounds.  The DM rolls a d6 and gets a '5'.  He tells the player "You're paralyzed." and makes a note on his tracking sheet.  Five rounds later, he'll tell the player "You're no longer paralyzed.  What do you want to do?"

That's how it's always been done.

art by KD Stanton

So, I've already written about why I think just-in-time-resolution is better (where the effect isn't resolved until it actually matters).  In this case, the player just goes into paralysis and the duration of the paralysis isn't resolved (and no know knows the duration) until the paralysis effect expires.

This requires a dice trick.  It only works if the duration is determined by a single roll of the dice.  (So, it doesn't work for 2d6, but it works for 1d8+1.) 

1. The first turn it might wear off, roll a dWhatever-the-size-of-the-die-was.  So if it lasts for 1d4 rounds, you'd roll a d4.
2. If get a 1 on the dWhatever, the condition wears off and you can act normally.
3. If the condition doesn't wear off, at the start of your next turn, roll a dWhatever-1.  If you get a 1, the effect wears off.  Otherwise, continue this process of decreasing the die size.

I know it looks weird, but its mathematically identical to a duration of 1d6 turns.  Here's an example.

DM: You're paralyzed.

Player: Fuck.

Player's 1st Turn: *character is paralyzed.*

Player's 2nd Turn: Rolls a d6, gets a 2.  Character is still paralyzed.

Player's 3rd Turn: Rolls a d5, gets a 5.  Character is still paralyzed.

Player's 4th Turn: Rolls a d4, gets a 1!  Character is no longer paralyzed, and takes their turn as normal.  Everyone at the table was excited and surprised!  The player saves the day!  Yay!

Yes, if they end up rolling a d2 and getting a 2, the surprise is ruined, and they know it'll wear off next round.

Yes, you might not have a d5.  Just use a d10, or a d6-reroll-any-sixes.

Using Just-in-Time Durations has a few advantages:

DM doesn't forget.  

It's (hopefully) rare, but sometimes the DM just forgets to tell the character that they're no longer paralyzed after 5 rounds, and the poor character stays paralyzed until someone asks the DM how much longer the paralysis is going to last.  It's shitty, but when there are a million things to keep track of, sometimes the DM loses track.

DM doesn't metagame.

Two of the players are paralyzed by ghouls.  The DM rolls a pair of d6s, and. . . shit.  Both of the players are paralyzed for 6 rounds each.  They might get a TPK here.  And then the idea creeeeeps into the DM's head: "Maybe I should reduce the ghoul's HP, or start fudging their attack rolls, or. . ."  If you are a DM who wants to be free from temptation, this is one solution.

Player has something to do.

I think this is what 4e was going for when it made all of those "55% chance to expire each turn" effects.  Players like rolling dice, even when their character is paralyzed.  Especially when their character is paralyzed.  It puts the roll back in their hands, too, so if they get TPK'd, they can own the results.

Players have an idea of how bad it is.

I like giving players more information.  That's how they make informed decisions.  For example, I'll usually tell you a creature's AC after you attack it once.  The same goes for durations.  Once a player finds out that the hallucinations last 1d6 minutes, they might decide to retreat from combat.  But if they find out that the hallucinations last 1d6 rounds, they might decide to stay in combat to tough it out.  Let players know the risks, so that they'll have no one else to blame when they fail.

Dice rolls are out in the open.

Everyone likes this, right?

So there you have it.

You can also use this mechanic for Just-in-Time Charges.  You start rolling duration on the first turn that an effect might wear off (the beginning of the second round of the effect), so you do the same thing with a wand with an unknown 

Players find a wand with 1d20 charges?  You could keep track of its charges on your sloppy pigpen of a DM's sheet* while you wait for them to identify it, OR

1. Player uses the wand and you tell them that it has 1d20 charges.
2. The next time they use it, they roll a d20.  
1. If they roll a 1, it fizzles.
2. If they don't roll a 1, it becomes a wand with 1d19 charges.
3. The next time they use it, they roll a d19.
4. Etc.

Wands in my game have 0-19 charges (d20-1), so my players start rolling that d20 the first time they use a wand.  It's always possible that they picked up a wand with no charges. 

*at least mine is a sloppy pigpen.  Your DM sheet may be more of a duck pond.  I don't judge.

Ego Sprite

Ego sprites are interesting because they aren't real.  They're a bit like pseudo-imaginary dinosaurs in that way.

You walk into a room and look at it, and it looks like a creature, but it's not.  It's a shared hallucination.  It's the manifestation of a meme-infested mind, not a creature on it's own.  It's a self-contained meme that resonates more strongly than the other ideas in your brain.

In that way, it's similar to a brain tumor.  Except outside of your head.  And it's contagious.

All ego sprites desire the same thing: attention.  Their plan to gain attention is sometimes circumlocutious, but it always boils down to the same result.

It is often difficult to pin down exactly what an ego sprite is, since they often resemble angels or demons.  In fact, some theorize that ego sprites are simply nascent godlings.  According to this theory, once an ego sprite has grown powerful enough to erase its ignoble circumstances of birth (possibly as an especially captivating graffito), it will establish itself as a god.

A picture of an ego sprite is an ego sprite.  It doesn't "summon" an ego sprite, it is the ego sprite.  Anyone who has seen an ego sprite before can draw that ego sprite.  Anyone who draws a picture of an ego sprite permanently loses 1 point of Charisma, so great is their investment.  

Ego Sprites are also sometimes drawn spontaneously by especially sensitive artists of any skill level.  Think Pygmalion, but also think hallucinatory mad man.

Ego sprites always resemble beautiful creatures, usually people of some impossible anatomy.  Maximally-resonant memes can have many appearances, but here are some examples (d6):

1. Feathered serpent containing all possible colors.  Head like a beaked horse.
2. Narrow, spindly man-shape with a head like a needle and a voice like heartbreak.
3. Blue-skinned woman with malleable flesh and gemstone eyes.  
4. A collection of glassy marbles that fly through the air.
5. Old woman that is actually a crab below the waist.  Has another, younger woman inside of her, visible through her mouth.
6. Man who is being controlled by two impossibly beautiful sock puppets.

And here are some sample powers:

1. Fear.  At 10 HD, this is reversed (people become afraid to run away) and permanent within a 20' range.
2. Color Spray.  At 10 HD, people have their senses of color permanently altered, and forever-more become unable to tell what color an object is (because they cannot describe the impossible colors that their eyes now see).
3. Sleep.  At 10 HD, creatures that are put to sleep with this ability dream only of the ego sprite.  This counts as attention, and they will sleep until dawn.
4. Cure Light Wounds.  At 10 HD, creatures that the ego sprite heals change shape subtly to resemble the ego sprite.  After an ego sprite has healed you 3 or more times, you resemble a pale imitation of the ego sprite.
5. Reduce Person.  At 10 HD, this ability shrinks a person to the size of a mouse.
6. Confusion.  At 10 HD, this ability causes portions of the target's memories to be overwritten with whatever fiction the ego sprite sees fit.

Plan to get attention:

1. Strife.  Gangland drama or philosophic controversy.
2. Lust and open adoration.  Possibly going as far as to be a cult, but cults are lazy fiction.
3. High-society parties.
4. Glory, usually through good works and displays of benevolence. Cheap sainthood.
5. Public spectacle: circuses, public plays, etc.
6. Control of an institution: orphanage, hospital, etc.

Weapon:

1. Sword
2. Stave
3. Scythe
4. Needle
5. Fork
6. Golden Hand/Claw of Disintegration.
7. Eye Lasers
8. Black Hole Anti-breath

by Peter Mohrbacher

Stats

Ego Sprite
HD X  AC chain Weapon Varies
Move 12  Int as smart as the smartest observer  Morale 7
Special Charm Person OR Special Power 3/day

An ego sprite's HD is equal to the number of people who are paying attention to it.  If no one is paying attention to it, it dies.  (Attention equals focusing on it, not merely being aware of it's presence).  An ego sprite with 1 HD is the size of your hand.  An ego sprite with 6 HD is the size of a human.  Ego sprites with 7+ HD may grow to be giants, or may remain human-sized.

A person can ignore an ego sprite if (a) the ego sprite is not slapping them, caressing them, or yelling in their ear AND (b) making a Wisdom check.  If the ego sprite is somewhere else and the person is doing an unrelated task (making breakfast, reading a book), they forget about the sprite if they roll under Wisdom * 2.

An ego sprite's weapon does 1dX damage, where X is equal to HD, rounded down to the nearest die size (min 1d4).

An ego sprite gives XP = maximum HD reached * 10 XP.

by Franz Wacik

Gameplay

Ego sprites can arise pretty much spontaneously.  It's possible that the PCs witness something conceptually momentous (e.g. angel sex, Cthulhu's butthole) and an ego sprite springs fully-formed from their mind.  You might even want to put ego sprites on your Insanity table.

If an ego sprite has only a single person paying attention to it, it's going to be very demanding.  They can't let you fall asleep after all.

Ego sprites rarely appear as bad guys at first blush.  (And in fact, they don't have to be strictly villainous.)  A tiny ego sprite knows that it depends on getting more people to pay attention to it, and handles that dependency with appropriate caution at low levels.  After all, most PCs wouldn't immediately kill a tiny, blue-skinned woman who follows them around casting cure light wounds and asking to please be brought back to civilization.  Plus, they're all liars.

Player: And this is the rest of my party.  This is Fitarr, and Hand, and--hey!  Did you just get bigger?
Ego Sprite: That's my angelic nature!  I regain strength whenever I regain hope!

Et cetera.

Ego sprites don't kill mass amounts of people.  Still, they can disrupt a lot of people's lives with their charm person ability and huge followings.  If the town watch is too busy fawning over an ego sprite that just showed up in their barracks, they won't be able to protect the town.  So they can do a lot of damage that way.

And if an ego sprite ever grows to god-like power, they might just vanish, taking thousands of people with them and most of the city, leaving nothing except for a handful of empowered clerics ready to spread the gospel of a new religion.

And yes, an ego sprite at the center of a 1000-person orgy is going to have enough HP to shrug off pretty much any damage the PCs through at it.  Trying to kill it with a save-vs-death is also going to have slim chances of success.  But the attention dependency is the real big weakness:  Pump some sleeping gas into that room, put everyone to sleep, and the ego sprite will die so fast that you'll swear that you don't deserve all this XP.

by Michael Hutter

Gurgans

Gurgans eat beauty and shit salt.

They're squat things, like shriveled men with distended bellies and enormous, flaccid penises, which they drag through the dust behind them.  They lurk in alleyways, croaking out their sorrows.  Sometimes they break into houses and gulp down babies with their gummy lips.  But most often you'll find them in the middle of the street, pouring dust on their head and sobbing.

Everyone knows that Gurgans have curses.  (This is automatic knowledge--all adventurers know it.)  If a Gurgan asks you to feed it and you do not, it will put its first curse on you.

The First Curse of the Gurgan: It licks you with its rancid tongue (requires an attack roll).  On a hit, your Charisma is reduced by 1d4+1, and the Gurgan shits out a brick of salt.

If you attack a Gurgan or drive it off, it will give you its Second Curse.

The Second Curse of the Gurgan: Your natural 20s turn into natural 1s.  Until that time, all food tastes like ashes (but provides the same nutrition).

If you kill a Gurgan, it will give you its third and final curse.

The Third Curse of the Gurgan varies.

Towns usually endure the Gurgan long enough for it to get bored and move on to the next town.  This usually takes 1d6 weeks.  Attempts to reason with the Gurgan are usually met with self-loathing and incoherence.  The creature is a master of redirecting conversations into different, more miserable topics.

The most remarkable thing about Gurgans is that people sometimes go to great lengths to avoid the horrid little things.  If there is a Gurgan in town, 1d8 x 10% of the people will just evacuate.  For a few weeks.  They'll go visit their cousin or something.  Anything to get away from that horrible Gurgan.

If you need stats for them, give them stats as a goblin that gives a negative amount of XP.  If you use more gurgans, consider giving them alternate curses.

from Star Trek

Plot Hooks

1. The obvious one is that a town wants you to get rid of a Gurgan that refuses to leave.  Maybe they have an important festival coming up.

2. Get information from a Gurgan.

3. Get a Gurgan to curse someone else.  This is going to involve tricking either the Gurgan, or the other person.

4. Protect a Gurgan.  It's horrible, demeaning work, but if you don't defend the Gurgan from the ire of the townsfolk, they'll attack the poor thing, and it'll curse the town with bone cancer or something.

5. Oh my god, there's a whole city of these things.  They just weep and masturbate and curse each other.  Go there and kill them all.  Or steal something important from them.  All that matters it that you're going to get so many curse-curse interactions in your body.  It's like mixing potions.  Who knows what'll happen?